In My Kitchen May 2013

I’m so excited to bring you the next instalment of the lovely Celia’s brainchild ‘In My Kitchen’ May 2013. I must confess my fridge is quite empty, we have been living frugally and making do with what we have already half opened or making dishes that are simple, contain few ingredients and eating less meat.

So what’s in my kitchen this time round?

Magnets from our travels around the world, adorning my fridge.

They are a constant reminder of where we’ve been, the stunning food we’ve eaten (and on some occasions regretted!) and how beautiful and small the world really is. We absolutely love to travel and explore the city as the locals see it. We almost never take bus tours or eat in hotel restaurants. Give me street food any day!

Stopping at tacky commercial souvenir shops has now become a tradition and I’ve paid up to $12 (!!) for fridge magnets most likely made in China, however I really don’t care. I still reminisce about my travels every time I open the fridge door.

The three photos on my fridge are also three happiest days our our lives; Our Wedding Day, Honeymoon in Fiji and our first family picture, my daughter is about 5 minutes old.

Pureed and frozen baby food

My daughter is now 20 months old and eating solids, all textures crunchy and soft however I still have an abundance of baby food in the freezer stored in ice cube trays that was basically a pureed version of whatever we had for dinner. In retrospect I probably should’ve labelled and dated the bags (Silly me!) but I’m fairly confident these are no older than 3 months old ( A nice lucky dip!). Little Miss doesn’t mind the odd puree as its easier for her to swallow, and as I hate wastage, we’ll continue to use these up for when we’re eating out or if I’m making something like steak that is still quite hard for her to eat.

I take 7 ‘ice cubes’ and thaw it over a double boiler. Dinner is served in under 5 minutes! All the dishes are made using a minimum of 5 vegetables and chicken/meat/fish/lentils or pureed cooked down fruit for dessert.

My West Highland White Terrier Tea Cosy from Inverness, Scotland

Being a tea drinker, it’s imperative the temperature of hot water remains toasty warm and this tea cosy certainly serves its purpose. I adore this tartan tea cosy, a generous gift from my beautiful Sister on her travels through the UK.  It’s incredibly thick and insulated and I can see great uses to put it over my homemade yoghurt mixture to keep it warm and snug as it snoozes and grows (recipe for that another day!)

 

Nargileh water pipe.

 Also known as Hookah, Arghila, or Hubbly Bubby’s, they’re essentially Wog Bongs! I don’t smoke cigarettes, but do occasionally light up my Nargileh with some apple flavoured Shisha tobacco and puff the night away. Shisha tobacco is flavoured syrupy tobacco mix with molasses and vegetable glycerol, quite frequently flavoured with apple essence. The tobacco doesn’t contain nicotine and certainly isn’t addictive in nature but I do find it completely relaxes me and I crave it every now and again wanting my sweet apple hit.

To light a Nargileh, place the Shisha tobacco in the ceramic head, cover it with foil and place a scorching hot charcoal pieces ontop. Fill the glass bottle with water and bubble away!

 So there you go, dear reader! Another sticky beak of what’s In My Kitchen. Please head over to Fig Jam and Lime Cordial (right side column)to see the contents of other Foodies and their kitchens around the world.

Read my other In My Kitchen post here